History of Church
In the early 60’s the Marams came in contact with the Christian Missionary particularly the Baptist but their association could not continue for long due to lack of funding, the strict Maram culture and traditional belief was also a hindrance for the growth of Christianity. The Marams practiced strict animism, any abrupt change in way of life or belief was considered as a sacrilege to the Maram. The European Catholic Missionaries particularly late Fr. Bianchi and late Fr. Med were considered as benevolent, philanthropist and visionaries by the Marams.
The Marams accepted Catholic faith in larger number because the early missionaries gave special attention to preserving Maram culture, to quote late Fr. Med said “Do anything that is humane to your culture but not idol worship”. As the Marams were not idol worshipers, the Chief and his council slowly accepted the Christian way of life. Even than with much household and ruined economy, Maram Khullen was characterized by cesspool of poverty, many had fallen into the vicious cycle of poverty. The only way out was to migrate to new settlement where competition for resources would be minimal, where employment opportunity would be better and where education would be easier.
This idea came to the three dynamic educated married men namely late Oja Talu, late Oja R. Kuba and late Oja Taruba. They were close friends, educated and had exposure to the outside world. But this had to be done without antagonizing the powerful animist Maram Chief, the first and foremost challenge was to gain the confidence of the Maram King (Sagong Taruba). The trio became good friends of the King; they drank, sang folk song and slept in the king’s morung. The trio convinced the king that the Christians were not schisms but would rather follow all custom and traditional practice except idol worship, they considered themselves social reformers seeking to bring about radical changes in the society.
Gaining the confidence of the king was the first victory, as a follow up action the trio urged the king to call for the conclave of all chiefs at his courtyard. During the conclave after long deliberation it was decided by the collective chiefs that the Christians would be allowed to settled in any clan, community or private land without any preset conditions, the King (Sagong Taruba)was extremely surprised when the trio declared that they will start the new settlement at “Bailangpou” (the land facing sun rise)because the major portion of the identified land was under the custodian of the king’s clan “Karangnamei”, however the king being an honorable man laughed of the declaration as a win-win situation for both Christian and Mara animist. It is pertinence to mention on record that no royalty or taxes were paid to the landowners as per the declaration of free settlement by council of chiefs, the clan of N’jangmei, Kisummei, N’giimei, Rangnameiand Karangnamei freely parted off the land for the new village.
The village was founded in the year 1968 with 12 elders as pioneers of the village and started the Church, dedicating it to St. Joseph. The 1st Catechist of the Church was Oja K. Taruba Matthias. The elders realized that Christianity and education should go hand in hand, and so Mr. R.K. Peter initiated the first school in the village in 1971. Later, in 1975, some of the village elders requested Fr. A.M. Daniel to start a school, which was recognized up to class VI and later taken over by Don Bosco Higher Secondary School to make Maram Centre the hub of education and Christianity.
With the growth of the faithful not only in Maram Centre but in the entire Maram area and the hard work put forward by the fathers and the religious, St. John Bosco Parish in Maram was erected in 1990. The erection of St. John Bosco Parish at Maram Centre led to the merger of the initial St. Joseph Church to the Parish Church.